ABSTRACT
The woman who married Cicero was a daughter of a branch of the Terentii, but we do not know her father’s cognomen (if he had one). The Terentii had appeared in the records of officials as far back as the war with Hannibal and there are several in the second century, but the most important senatorial branch was that of the Terentii Varrones, who traced descent from a new man who had held the consulship in 216. They were thus plebeian nobles, with a long track record. The fact that Cicero’s cousin Visellius had the cognomen Varro suggests that Cicero may have already had a link with the Terentii Varrones. The most famous member of the family at this date was M. Terentius Varro of Reate (116-27), a polymath who rose to the praetorship. He owned a villa at Casinum/Cassino, not far from Arpinum, and was a friend of Cicero. It is possible that these links of family, friendship and vicinity came into play, if Terentia was the daughter of a Varro. Moreover, her father may have been a Marcus. An epitaph to freed slaves found six Roman miles outside Rome on the Appian Way, if genuine, seems to have been set up for staff of Cicero’s family (or freed slaves of such a staff group). The use of the praenomen Marcus by two Terentii is compatible with their having been freed by a woman who would, according to the normal usage, have passed on her father’s praenomen to her freedmen (since she had no first name of her own).1
